April 10th, 2023
Written by Gabi Pope
“Through this He has given us His great and precious promises…” –2 Peter 1:4
When you are in a season of waiting, it is hard to find joy. You have to push yourself a little harder, dive into God’s word a little more, and truly find peace with it being all in God’s hands. For me, my season of waiting was five years long and didn’t end until I gave everything to Him.
Everyone's waiting season is so different, but I would love to share a little from my waiting season: infertility.
When my husband and I first got married, we immediately began trying to have a baby! It was all we longed for. Since I was a child, all I wanted was to be married and have a huge family, but God had other plans for us. We went to appointment after appointment, treatment after treatment, all for them to tell us the same thing: “We don’t know what is happening, we don't know what is causing you to lose the baby, we have no answers for you today.” No one had the answers we were looking for, but truth be told, we weren’t looking in the one place we knew would have the answers.
It wasn’t until we picked up our Bible, and began digging for answers, that we found what we needed to hear. The first story I found was about Sarai and Abram, and boy did it open my eyes!
In Genesis 11:30, it tells us who Sarai is: she is childless because she was not able to conceive. In chapter 15, God promises a child to Abram and that the amount of stars in the sky would be the amount of his heirs. That's a huge promise, friends! In chapter 16, we see Sarai give her Egyptian slave to her husband and the slave (Hagar) becomes pregnant. Then we see Sarai say, “You are responsible for the wrong I am suffering.”
Isn’t it so easy to blame the ones we love most, especially in our times we are hurting the most? Like Sarai, I began blaming all of the hurt on my husband. I blamed him for the small things and the large things! He could look at me wrong and I immediately jumped all over him, and it wasn’t until later that I realized I was letting the enemy win. I was allowing him to come in, in my most vulnerable time, and cause dysfunction in my marriage. But isn’t that just like that stinky ol’ devil? He comes in to steal, kill, and destroy and that is exactly what he was doing.
Like Sarai, I began getting jealous of friends and family that would be pregnant. I was so jealous that I couldn’t even attend a baby shower, without crying the entire way home. People stopped inviting me to things to do with babies, because they knew I would be miserable the entire time. That is the moment I realized, I had to be like Christ and love others who were getting the blessings that I was praying for.
I began reading more into Sarai and Abram, how God took them even after they disobeyed. He took them and promised that Abraham would be the Father to all Nations. He blessed them, even in old age. God was working miracles even though, in some people's eyes, they didn’t deserve it. That is when I saw the truth: God sees me just as He would see the pregnant woman. Just as God provided for Sarah and Abraham, at ninety-nine, God would fulfill His promises to us. This is just what He did, He brought us a child. All we had to do was “walk before him faithfully and be blameless” (Genesis 16:16) We opened our hearts to love any and all children that were brought around us, and with that He blessed us.
The thing that I was constantly reminded of throughout this time of waiting, was that being childless didn’t mean that we were any less than someone with a child. God may not bless every husband and wife with a child, but He may have other blessings in store for them. Either a child or something else, a blessing from God is just that–a blessing!
I pray that every person who is going through a waiting season will hear from God that their time will come. You might be waiting for a child, or maybe you’re waiting to hear about something you’re longing for. Either way, I pray that you will be blessed. God has something for you, and your purpose may be so much larger than what you are currently hoping for!
“Through this He has given us His great and precious promises…” –2 Peter 1:4
When you are in a season of waiting, it is hard to find joy. You have to push yourself a little harder, dive into God’s word a little more, and truly find peace with it being all in God’s hands. For me, my season of waiting was five years long and didn’t end until I gave everything to Him.
Everyone's waiting season is so different, but I would love to share a little from my waiting season: infertility.
When my husband and I first got married, we immediately began trying to have a baby! It was all we longed for. Since I was a child, all I wanted was to be married and have a huge family, but God had other plans for us. We went to appointment after appointment, treatment after treatment, all for them to tell us the same thing: “We don’t know what is happening, we don't know what is causing you to lose the baby, we have no answers for you today.” No one had the answers we were looking for, but truth be told, we weren’t looking in the one place we knew would have the answers.
It wasn’t until we picked up our Bible, and began digging for answers, that we found what we needed to hear. The first story I found was about Sarai and Abram, and boy did it open my eyes!
In Genesis 11:30, it tells us who Sarai is: she is childless because she was not able to conceive. In chapter 15, God promises a child to Abram and that the amount of stars in the sky would be the amount of his heirs. That's a huge promise, friends! In chapter 16, we see Sarai give her Egyptian slave to her husband and the slave (Hagar) becomes pregnant. Then we see Sarai say, “You are responsible for the wrong I am suffering.”
Isn’t it so easy to blame the ones we love most, especially in our times we are hurting the most? Like Sarai, I began blaming all of the hurt on my husband. I blamed him for the small things and the large things! He could look at me wrong and I immediately jumped all over him, and it wasn’t until later that I realized I was letting the enemy win. I was allowing him to come in, in my most vulnerable time, and cause dysfunction in my marriage. But isn’t that just like that stinky ol’ devil? He comes in to steal, kill, and destroy and that is exactly what he was doing.
Like Sarai, I began getting jealous of friends and family that would be pregnant. I was so jealous that I couldn’t even attend a baby shower, without crying the entire way home. People stopped inviting me to things to do with babies, because they knew I would be miserable the entire time. That is the moment I realized, I had to be like Christ and love others who were getting the blessings that I was praying for.
I began reading more into Sarai and Abram, how God took them even after they disobeyed. He took them and promised that Abraham would be the Father to all Nations. He blessed them, even in old age. God was working miracles even though, in some people's eyes, they didn’t deserve it. That is when I saw the truth: God sees me just as He would see the pregnant woman. Just as God provided for Sarah and Abraham, at ninety-nine, God would fulfill His promises to us. This is just what He did, He brought us a child. All we had to do was “walk before him faithfully and be blameless” (Genesis 16:16) We opened our hearts to love any and all children that were brought around us, and with that He blessed us.
The thing that I was constantly reminded of throughout this time of waiting, was that being childless didn’t mean that we were any less than someone with a child. God may not bless every husband and wife with a child, but He may have other blessings in store for them. Either a child or something else, a blessing from God is just that–a blessing!
I pray that every person who is going through a waiting season will hear from God that their time will come. You might be waiting for a child, or maybe you’re waiting to hear about something you’re longing for. Either way, I pray that you will be blessed. God has something for you, and your purpose may be so much larger than what you are currently hoping for!
Posted in Encouragement, Perseverance, Waiting
Posted in Child, Children, Waiting, Patience, Abraham, Sarai
Posted in Child, Children, Waiting, Patience, Abraham, Sarai
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